In an incremental backup, a file is generated that includes all blocks of data from a storage device to be backed up. Further backups may be performed by storing only blocks that changed from that last backup. Such backups are referred to as incremental backups. To restore data from a storage device that has failed, the original backup is used, and all the incremental backups are then applied to changed blocks to obtain the latest file. As the number of incremental backups grows larger, the recovery time to obtain a desired file increases. To reduce the recovery time, another full backup is forced. Forcing another full backup consumes significant storage space and can also take a significant amount of time.